Ratchet and Clank: Gears of Subspace
by MasterNeffa
Summary: As Skye completes her apprenticeship under Ratchet's instruction, a devastating crisis occurs, leaving Ratchet with a... minor setback. Will Skye and Clank be able to help him retaliate against the newly rising evil? Why is Skye's past so mysterious?
1. A Unwelcome Party Guest

"Steady…." Ratchet quietly chanted.

"Jesus, Ratchet, I can do it!" Skye shouted, pressing down on the drill's trigger. She was working awfully hard; making sure that the left hind rocket on the hovercraft was in place correctly, calibrating the steering wheel. She tightened the last bolt of the engine with her wrench and sighed, wiping the moist, hot sweat from her tired face with an oily rag. Her copper locks of hair were pulled back into a ponytail, which was covered by a green bandanna. Her pale skin felt warm in the afternoon sun, making her coo in pleasure a little.

Ratchet, a Lombax mechanic, had been working on training Skye for a year now, and judging by her work, she had practiced the craft, worked with circuits, and easily understood the primary and secondary rules of being a mechanic.

He inspected her work on the hover car, making sure that everything was calibrated correctly, and smiled. "This is actually pretty good!" he exclaimed, looking up at Skye's enlightened face. He stood up and shook her hand. "Congrats! I thought you'd never make it this far. But you've definitely proved yourself worthy enough to work with me in the shop."

"Really?" Skye asked joyously. She couldn't believe it: her hard work as an apprentice was finally paying off! Maybe now Ratchet would tell her about all of the adventures he went on! It was her birthday as well, so she felt DOUBLE lucky!

"Ratchet, can I have a birthday wish?" Skye asked.

"What would that be?" Ratchet chuckled.

"I've heard from a certain sophisticated robot that you have a secret room where you keep all of the devices from your adventures."

Ratchet stopped. Darn Clank, he was revealing EVERYTHING to her nowadays, wasn't he? "Do I really have to show you it?" he griped.

"I wanted a birthday wish…" Skye's eyes began to water.

"Alright," Ratchet said, trying hard to keep her from getting upset. "I'll show you, but DON'T- under ANY circumstances- touch the devices. They're for emergencies only."

Skye found herself standing in front of a glass box that contained a device like a remote control with an antenna on it. It was smooth and shiny, with black plastic and different colored boxes that had words in a strange language written on them. "Ratchet… what's this?" she asked, pointing to the object.

Ratchet looked over at her. "That…" he gulped. "That is a Shrink Ray."

Skye stared blankly at him. "You're kidding, right?"

"Not at all," Ratchet grinned. "We had to use it on several occasions, actually. A lot of it was during the invasion of the Technomites."

"They exist?"

"I didn't believe so until I saw them for myself either, but yes. They DO exist." Ratchet placed a hand on her shoulder. "It also has more dangerous functions that I've discovered over the years. I wouldn't play around with it if I were you- you could make something blow up or disappear."

A short, mechanical figure appeared in the doorway. The voice was electronic, but seemed full of personality. "Ratchet, what are you doing?"

"Just showing her the collection, Clank." Ratchet put his hands behind his head as he stood and stretched. "What are you doing?"

"Dinner's out already."

Ratchet, without a moment's hesitation, raced towards the door, only to be knocked back by the robot companion.

"Ladies first. It is her graduation night and birthday, after all."

Skye helped Ratchet up off the floor and smiled. There was a small sparkle in her eyes tonight- something he hadn't seen before. A strange feeling welled up inside him suddenly, but he pushed it back into a small corner of his mind and soul.

Ratchet bit into another slice of chocolate cake, wondering how in the world Clank found the right flavor to make. "So Skye…. Um… how old are you now?"

Skye looked away for a moment and then looked back. "Eighteen."

"Really? You look so young! And you're a little taller than me. I mean, I'm twenty-three years old," Ratchet said, putting his arms behind his head. "Then again, it's normal to be a little over five feet for my species."

"I see," Skye murmured a little sadly.

"What's wrong?" Clank asked, tugging on Skye's dress.

"I don't know who my family is, exactly. My father died when I was little. I can't remember anything about mother."

"Oh… I'm so sorry…" Ratchet said, trying to comfort his apprentice by putting his arm around her.

She gingerly slipped through his arm and stood. "I better get to bed. We have a long day in the shop tomorrow." With those final words, she turned and walked around the corner.

Ratchet looked at Clank with a confused expression. "Have you noticed something odd about her recently?" he asked.

Clank nodded. "Looking at the security camera videos while she's sleeping, her brain patterns are seeming irregular, as if she's remembering something or having a vivid nightmare. She tosses and turns in her sleep and often wakes up screaming."

"Now that you've mentioned it," Ratchet said, "she's been telling me she hasn't been getting a lot of sleep lately."

"Exactly. That, linked with the fact that she hasn't seen her parents since she was little… maybe she's having a nightmare about what happened so many years ago to her father."

"I wonder who her parents really are." Ratchet thought for a minute. "Maybe we should be paying more attention to the actions of her brain waves. We can use a scanner to transmit them to a monitor."

"I don't think that's a very good idea, Ratchet," Clank responded. "She may get upset. Remember the last time she-"

"I don't need a recap of the horror film festival. Let's just keep a close eye on her, shall we?" Ratchet asked, cringing at the memory of Skye's ear-splitting pitches that she could only get to when screaming.

Skye tossed to the left and squeezed her eyes shut even tighter. The piercing pain in her mind was stressing her and pushing her closer and closer to the edge of her sanity. She screamed. "Why? Why are you doing this?"

She envisioned a needle plunging into her skin, her body squirming a little in disgust, and everything quickly becoming a hazy blur. In the distance, she heard a doctor's voice. "She's going to need treatment quickly- she's going to be in a coma for a long time."

"How long, doctor?" a female voice asked.

"Maybe five years at least- the damage is severe. We aren't even sure if she'll make it."

"What of her parents?" the woman's voice responded.

"Her mother was scalded severely and died a few hours ago. Her father… he died in the war and-"

Skye woke up screaming, the dark room around her becoming more and more friendly by the second. She calmed down and sighed in relief.

"Skye, are you alright?" Clank's voice sounded from behind her door.

"Y-yeah…just had another nightmare, that's all."

"I know- you talk in your sleep."

Skye prickled. "How long were you at the door."

"Long enough to understand why you're upset. Why don't you talk about it?"

"I don't know… I have no idea how long I was in a coma… I was taller when I woke up, that's all."

Clank stared at her. "Years must have passed you by. But why do you want to keep it secret?"

"All I know is that mother died of burns and father died in a war on another planet. Maybe I have a gene that'll give a clue."

Ratchet walked into the hallway. "H-hi, Skye," he greeted sleepily. "What's going on?"

"Maybe you guys can help me. Clank… do you have a device that does blood tests?"

"I think so… yes." He pulled out a device with a needle and a small electronic tab. "Just prick your finger and put a drop on the tab."

Skye followed the instructions Clank gave her and sighed, sucking her index vigorously. "What are the results?"

"Accessing…oh! This is interesting!" Clank exclaimed.

"What?" Skye asked, getting a little excited.

"According to the scan, your blood reads-"

BOOM!

"What was that?" Clank asked turning his head.

Ratchet became alert. "Sounds like it came from the secret room." He pulled out a few double-bladed wrenches and handed one to Skye. "Defend yourself- this is an emergency."


	2. A Small Problem

As Clank accessed the security cameras to see who had broken in, Ratchet and Skye went off to track the intruder down and corner them. Their wrench like weapons weighted their arms down slightly, but that only sharpened their minds and senses.

Skye suddenly stopped at the sight of a strange vision. She paused to think, quickly realizing that she had seen Ratchet in trouble in the secret room, a figure too deep in the shadows to identify knocked out cold beside him. The intruder must have a hostage, she thought. She turned around and headed back in the direction from which she had come.

As she turned the corner and sped into secret room, she realized that it was silent, quietness so delicate that something simply wasn't right.

A shadowy figure slowly appeared from the darkness of the far corner, a green and mustached creature approaching, his metal armor glinting slightly. It made an odd breathing noise that sounded like hissing, and the way it walked was so strange for a man in a robotic suit, almost dainty. His head was swelled and his golden eyes darkly blinked.

Skye slowly backed further away from the man, scared to get hurt. The man raised his arm and a cannon like weapon formed, a slowly growing glow emitting from it. "I have you now!"

Skye thrust her wrench forward, throwing it against the cannon in a way that caused the arm to flash and completely disable itself. The man crashed to the floor, but quickly recovered and stared at her.

"You are a very tricky little nuisance, aren't you, Miss?" the dark voice said, chilling Skye to the bone. The man in the robot suit cracked an evil smile at the sight of her. "What? Are you… scared, little girl?"

"R-ratchet!" she screamed.

"Oh, come now. We don't need anyone else getting involved. Just tell me where the item is and I'll leave you alone."

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Skye muttered fearfully.

"Lies!" the man said, looking deep into her eyes. "I know you have it and I know it's here. Tell me again- where is the Sapphire of Solana?"

"I don't know what you are talking about!" she said. She unbuttoned her shirt slightly. "The only stone in my possession is this." She showed a small, sparkling stone around her neck. She looked up just in time to see him blast an electric beam from his gun before the burning sensation knocked her out cold.

"Finally," the man said, gripping the gem of her necklace and getting ready to yank it off. "Master Tenor will be pleased."

Ratchet slid around the corner and stared and Skye in horror. She was still breathing, but she had burns. The strange intruder held her necklace in his fist, the chain circling around Skye's pale neck. "What did you do to her?" he demanded, pulling out a short-range missile gun from its place on his belt.

"Ratchet… how good it is to finally meet a modern hero. I'm afraid your girlfriend is down for the count. Shocking, isn't it?" the madman said, smiling cruelly and dropping the necklace back down with its keeper.

Ratchet leapt and hit him over the head with his wrench, and then began shooting miniature missiles at the armor. They barely did anything, only making slight scratches, and he ran out of ammo pretty quickly.

He panted heavily as the man's dark figure loomed over him. He slammed a metal hand against the glass box containing a remote control like device. "Is this… a Shrink Ray?" the man chuckled. "Ratchet, Ratchet, Ratchet… I thought you weren't the type to have devices so silly and yet… so powerful." He pointed the device towards the Lombax Mechanic and grinned. "I can't possibly leave you as you are right now- it would be such a waste. Better to disable your enemy now than later."

He pressed the button down hard on the remote control, and the beam hit Ratchet. The jolt of electricity shot through him as he began to see the world quickly growing before his eyes. He felt the chuckle of the evil man rumbling deeply into his soul, and he suddenly screamed at the top of his lungs, "I will get you for this!"

The man smiled. "Really?" he breathed; making sure Ratchet was as intimidated as possible by leaning down and staring darkly. "Too bad I'm taking the device with me. So long pipsqueak!" he laughed, blowing a hole through the roof and rocketing away into the night.

Ratchet banged his fist against the floor in anger. "No, no, no!" he screamed, wanting to turn back the hands of time. He couldn't bear being this height one bit! What would he say to Clank and Skye?

That is, if he could get their attention. Something made this deepening fury towards the strange man almost burn a hole in his heart. He had to find a way to reverse this!

He looked up at Skye and sighed. There was no way she was going to wake up now- she was unconscious. He grunted in frustration. Who was he going to get help from?

He exited the room and ran down the hall, which was much further than it used to be. Considering that he was maybe two inches tall or so, everything was going to be harder than usual for him. "Clank!" he yelled. "Clank, buddy…where are you?"

Clank registered a small noise, but was unsure where it was coming from. Adjusting the lenses of his eyes, he looked around carefully. But, before he could spot the source of the noise… it was gone.

Ratchet sighed. "God Dammit!" he breathed. "Now what am I going to do?" he looked around a little bit and noticed a dresser in Skye's room. "Maybe if I get up there, Skye will notice me!"

He decided on that plan. After scavenging a piece of string and a paper clip that had been lying around, he slowly began to scale the large, wooden dresser.

Skye woke to Clank poking her, a stubby, metallic black finger rapidly touching her arm. "Clank…"

"You're awake! Finally. I thought you'd never come to. Ratchet has gone missing." Clank looked at her with a robotically worried expression.

"What?" Skye groaned. She looked around the lab- much was damaged and weapons and gadgets were stolen. There was debris cast asunder. She stood up shakily and looked directly at the glass box.

Or at least what used to be the glass box. It was jaggedly shattered, as if someone had punched through it, and the device inside- the Shrink Ray- was gone. Her eyes widened in fear. "Ratchet is going to kill me!"

"If we don't find him soon, HE could be the one that is killed."

"I know, Clank," Skye said, wiping a lonely tear from her eye. "I know."

Ratchet watched slowly as Skye entered the room, frantically searching everywhere she possibly could. She peeked under boxes, in her closet, and even under her bed. "Oh, where are you, Ratchet?" she asked, tearing through the room like a twister.

"Skye!" Ratchet called, wanting to ease her. He didn't like it when she was worried- it never was a good sign. The girl didn't even stop to listen, though. Dammit, he thought. She couldn't hear him. He screamed louder, nearly giving him a headache. "SKYYYYYYEEEE!"

"Huh?" Skye exclaimed, looking up from her kneeling position on the floor. "What was that?"

"SKYE! UP HERE!" Ratchet yelled, trying to continue getting her attention.

The apprentice stood and walked towards her dresser, her hand pausing as she examined it. Where was that noise coming from? She shrugged and sat on the bed, sighing. "If only Ratchet were here… he'd tell me what to do…"

Ratchet blushed a little bit and looked down at her. She was beautiful up close and nice to look at. Her curves were perfectly hourglass-shaped and her eyes sparkled. Her hair flowed back at the slightest breeze like blossoms in the wind.

Ratchet was too much in a daze to realize that his foot was slipping off the edge. He screamed as he suddenly lurched forward, falling closer and closer to her until…

He stopped somewhere warm and dry, and the walls hugged him. There was a semi-quiet lub-dub emitting from one wall. He opened his eyes and gasped, both awed and terrified, for he had found himself in Skye's bra, stuck not far from the surface.

Before he had the chance to calm himself, he was pinched by his waist and lifted, pulled away from the walls. He kicked around, trying to break free from the grasp. Suddenly feeling a steady silence, he stuttered and lifted his head up as he came within Skye's eyesight, but just as his green eyes met her gray gaze, her pupils narrowed and she failed to stifle a gasp.

"R-RATCHET?" she breathed, horrified by what she was seeing. "What the… how did you…?"

"Put me down, dammit!" Ratchet yelled, kicking and squirming in her grip. "This isn't even close to comfortable."

Skye squinted and set him down on her other hand. "W-what happened to y-you?" she asked, lifting him up so she could see him.

He stared into her eyes. "Whoever that crazy guy was got the Shrink Ray and zapped me. He has stolen it, too, so I can't return to normal even if I tried."

Skye put her free hand up to her mouth. "That's awful…oh, what are we going to do, Ratchet?"

"First, we need to rebuild a shrink ray. That shouldn't take too long."

"But, at your height… wouldn't that be difficult?" she asked. She couldn't help but grin a little at him- he looked so adorably cute right now, and she could barely contain her inner emotions. "R-ratchet… you look so cute like this…"

Ratchet laughed. "Well, I'll need some help. You want to help me?"

"I…" Skye paused. Ratchet was asking HER for help. She entertained the idea for a moment and smiled in glee. "Yes, I'll help. I'm good with circuits. Should we… go tell Clank?"

Probably," Ratchet sighed, scratching his head with his hand. "Poor guy's probably worried by now."

"Clank!" Skye called. The robot turned and walked into the other room.

"Have you found anything that will help us find Ratchet?" he asked, looking at the apprentice.

"Even better! I found Ratchet!" Skye smiled joyously.

"Really? Where?" Clank asked, getting a strange feeling.

Skye held out her hand to him, a shrunken Ratchet shakily attempting to stand up. He fell backwards again in a daze.

"Ratchet? Is that really you?" Clank asked.

"'Fraid so, buddy," Ratchet said, upset by the situation as well. "There was some guy who said something about a guy named Master Tenor. He shrunk me and took the ray with him so I was defenseless."

"Tenor… hmm," Clank said, his inner gears spinning. "Leomisius Knox Tenor, maybe?"

"Who is that?" Skye asked.

"According to data, Tenor was arrested for plagiarism of other people's inventions. He claimed that he was framed, but he was arrested anyway. After four years in Prison Gate 7000, the toughest Prison in the Polaris Galaxy, he sought revenge by taking devices to build a super device that would take over the world. He is still building it."

"So, maybe he's going to use the abilities of the Shrink Ray with the beam…"

"Not only that," Clank said. "He took a lot of the weapons in the secret room."

"Please don't tell me that he-"

"Fine, we won't tell you that the man made off with the RYNO."

"Dammit! He's gonna pay! We're going to go after him!" Ratchet ran off the edge of Skye's hand, realizing a little too late that he wasn't exactly the same height anymore. Luckily, Skye darted out her other hand as a landing pad.

Ratchet breathed heavily, tumbling against the soft surface of the younger mechanic's hand in a daze. "I need to be… a little more careful."

Skye lifted her hand closer to her face and wrapped her hand around the Lombax gently. She looked at him awkwardly. "How are we going to rebuild the ray? We can't be in two places at once!" she said.

"I suggest that we collect a blueprint and materials as we search for Tenor. That way we are killing two birds with one stone," Clank replied.

"Sounds fine, except for one small problem." Ratchet looked at Clank. "I can't fight."

"Perhaps Skye can offer her skills," Clank said. "Do you know any techniques, Skye?"

"Not much, besides the basics. I know how to mess with Commandos and other security robots, and I'm pretty fast."

Ratchet ran up her sleeve and out the collar, perching on her shoulder. "You'll be alright then. I don't know too much either, but what I do know is never to give up."

"I know that already by your attitude."

After packing up a few of the remaining weapons, food for a couple of days, and enough money to buy materials such as spark wires and circuit components, Skye was ready to hit the road. Well, except for the fact that there was one little problem…

"Do you really have to take that with you?" Ratchet whined, upset that Skye was packing a small box with fabric and sewing equipment. "Why?"

"Why not? You're not going to wear the same outfit EVERY DAY, are you?" she asked.

He looked down at the pair of sweatpants he had been wearing to bed. "Well, you DO have a point there..."

"…And I don't want you to get cold, either." Skye walked towards the cargo slot and packed the box in with the rest of the equipment. "You're sitting with me."

Clank strapped himself in, making sure that every safety precaution was taken. "Skye, let's hurry. We should head out in the direction that that strange man went."

"According to my calculations, it seems that he rocketed straight towards Quodrona." Skye heard a strange noise, like a whisper. She spaced out for a moment, trying to think where she'd heard the sound before. It was like metal scraping against metal, and an explosion following.

Snapping back into reality, she realized that Clank was trying to get her attention. She turned to him.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"Everything's fine. I'm pretty sure I can get there alright. Nothing is wrong, just tired from lack of sleep." Skye shifted her eyes around. "Things haven't really been normal for me lately…"


	3. Single Lettered Code

Ratchet was finally sound asleep, and Skye wondered what he was thinking. She worried about him- what if he had to stay that way for the rest of his life?

No, she wouldn't think that way again. The last time she had it resulted in a deep loss. She wasn't going to think of the worst, especially because he was depending on her to get the task done.

"Clank?" she asked, poking the robot sitting in the passenger seat.

"Yes, Skye?" Clank replied, cracking open his eyes.

"Have you ever given advice to someone. Y'know, about… feelings?" she asked, trying hard not to show her embarrassment.

"Not really, no. Ratchet hasn't had a real relationship with a girl for a very long time. In fact, I don't recall a relationship ever occurring while I was at his side."

"I don't know how I feel right now. I'm feeling sick and-" She stopped and checked her watch.

"What is that?"

"Oh, nothing…"

"It looks like some sort of advanced-"

"Listen, I know you're concerned, but please, I'll be alright." Skye rested again, putting the ship into autopilot.

Ratchet yawned, the early morning sunlight shining through the crack in his eye. "Ugh…where… where am I?" he asked himself slowly adjusting to his somewhat dark surroundings.

The floor shifted slightly under him, and he tumbled around, trying to figure out what the heck was going on. Where was he?

The floor suddenly curled beneath him and grabbed him around the waist. He was suddenly pulled out of the darkness kicking and screaming in pure terror, until his eyes adjusted a little more to the blinding light and he realized that the events weren't a dream. He calmed himself as Skye's gray eyes flickered. "Thanks for the warning."

"S-sorry," Skye replied, keeping her hand steady as he tried to stand. She held out her index as a handrail, and smiled. "We're here, now. On Quodrona, that is."

Ratchet grimaced a little bit. "Never though I'd have to revisit this damned place." Sighing, he asked his apprentice to set him down.

Skye lowered her hand, and he quickly jumped off, brushing himself off. "So, where do you think the Technomites are now?" Skye asked, tilting her head curiously.

"There should be some small areas still inhabited by them nearby," Clank replied, scanning the area for signs of life. "There should be one past that crevice." He pointed towards a break in a nearby cliff, one that was maybe six inches wide.

"We won't fit through that!" Skye cried. "How are we supposed to get to them if we can't fit?"

"Well, we might not be able to, but perhaps Ratchet can." Clank looked over to his miniature partner. "Are you up for it?"

"Anything to get back to normal," Ratchet said. "Like I wanna stay stuck at this height forever."

Ratchet began to walk through the narrow crevice, but he turned to speak again. "Just climb the rocks and descend the other side. I'll meet you over there to discuss plans." With those words said, he whipped around and sped away.

Skye sighed, pulling a grappling hook from the cargo slot of the airship. "Well, let's get climbing."

Clank grabbed the other end of the rope and yanked, tugging the hook from the girl's hands. "Why don't we just fly up there?"

"How would we do that?" Skye questioned. She didn't understand. Neither of them could fly.

Clank laughed and, after hooking a harness onto her back, strapped himself against her. "Hang on, and don't scream if you're afraid of heights." Suddenly, from his arms and head, he spawned propellers and shifted into high gear, lifting the apprentice off the ground.

Skye squealed a little in fright. "H-hey! What the hell are you doing! Don't you know that I have severe acro… acro…" She suddenly went pale and got extremely dizzy as Clank flew her over the wall of the cliff.

"I told you not to scream," Clank said, hovering over the wall. "Now let's just get down and-" His propellers suddenly stopped, jammed by something big, and he and Skye dropped closer and closer to the ground.

Skye began to scream, quickly trying not to panic as the gears of her imagination began to turn. She quickly leaned forward, heading in the direction of a wall. Metallically, Clank screamed, "Skye, what are you doing?"

"Trust me," she hollered. She tightened the harness to which Clank was attached and somersaulted, her feet hitting the rocky cliff wall, and flipped backwards onto the rocky terrain. She tilted slightly backwards, nearly losing balance.

Clank stared at her. "How did you do that?"

Shifting her eyes back and forth, Skye smiled. "I guess I just got lucky."

"Luck doesn't happen that fast," Clank mumbled, wondering why Skye had suddenly begun to show a hidden side.

"Freeze!"

Ratchet stopped dead in his tracks. "What do you want?"

A pair of blue hands grabbed at his shoulders. "Who might you be?" a strange man asked. He had short, stubby legs and seemed to be wearing some sort of HAZMAT suit. "No, it couldn't be! Not after all these years!"

"What?" Ratchet asked, trying to act as natural as possible.

"I've never seen such a being like you before." The man wheeled around and looked at him, his eyes widening in amazement. "You're a… a…"

"Yeah, I'm a Lombax, now what do you want?" Ratchet said, the tone making the blue man gasp.

"You're Ratchet! I've heard so much about you! The downfall of our Emperor… what a shame. He deserved it though for brainwashing some of our finest minds. Why are you here though?"

"Well, Ratchet said, beginning to move again. "There was a situation. Remember the Shrink Ray that your former Emperor made long ago?"

"Yes. What about it?"

"Well, someone broke into our house and stole it, and before he left he… did this to me."

"I don't see any trauma," the man replied.

"I mean, this isn't my normal height."

"Oh, so you're a big guy, huh?" the man asked. He held out his hand. "Reggie."

"Ratchet," the Lombax replied, gripping the hand and shaking it. "So, uh, Reggie… so you have a Ray of some sort that'll get me back to…well, normal?"

Reggie stopped. "I would… but it's not completed yet. Just as we were about to make the calibrations, Gregory, our head technician and engineer, went missing. A group of strange people showed up and demanded that we give them the "Sapphire of Solana" in exchange for our friend. We were horrified."

"Well, where are they now?" Ratchet asked, wary that he may have to rescue people again after this.

"They took him towards the cliffs of Dredagorm, where the hot springs are. I'd be careful- those things could fry you like a burger." Reggie handed him his gun. "62-shot ion pulse rifle. Her name's Susan. If anything happens to her, it'll be the death of you."

Ratchet took the rifle and sighed. "I'll see you in a little bit, oka-"

BOOOOOM!

"What the hell?" Reggie shouted, running over to a window to see what was going on. "Don't tell me that they're back!"

Ratchet ducked behind a crate as a few men, clad in robotic suits, stepped out into the hall. "Reggie, Reggie, Reggie… what sort of device do you have for me this time?"

The Lombax gasped, turning in surprise as he saw the Technomite being held up by the shirt by the very man who had cut him down to size. He hissed and, with the slightest of hesitation, agility and ferocity, he leaped onto the back of the man, attempting to break open the glass.

The creature within the dome of the glass helmet faded, suddenly and mechanically whirring closer and closer to a squeaky halt. Ratchet leapt from the mecha body and examined the internal components. "You were missing an ion capacitor, that's all," Ratchet smiled, handing a piece of glowing circuitry to Reggie. "As for me, I got what I needed." He pulled out the Shrink Ray from the suit. Before he finished, he noticed an odd insignia inside the suit- a few Gears, springs and bolts arranged in the shape of an 'N'.

"Well, if your ship ever needs a fix up or you need an upgrade, then-"

"I know where to find ya! Thanks!" Ratchet walked off, waving goodbye.

"So, did you get it?" Skye asked, as she noticed the tiny Lombax exiting the factory.

Ratchet smiled and jumped up, hitting himself with the Ray's beam fast enough that, as his size changed, he fell directly on top of her. Laughing a little, Ratchet touched his hand to her face, suddenly feeling an odd, velvety texture. He was confused- Skye's skin was smooth…

He sighed; the beam must've temporarily altered his senses or something. Maybe he wasn't feeling too well. Whatever the case, they still had to follow this Tenor guy- maybe he knew what the 'N' on the inside of the suit meant.

Later that evening, Skye looked over at Ratchet and sighed to herself. She just couldn't bring up what was on her mind at the time. The memories of her blackened past were resurfacing slowly, hazily, until the very thought of her family made her ill with torment. "Clank," she said. "How long have you had the data on my blood scan from yesterday?" she asked.

The small robot looked up at her, and his eyes smiled. "You're blood read something very odd indeed. It said you were an entirely different species."

Skye's pupils widened and narrowed as they passed by sources of almost unnatural light, the light only produced by that of glowing asteroids and other ships. She sighed again, and flicked a switch, which was followed shortly by a female voice that announced, "Autopilot engaged."

Ratchet was yanked slowly from his sleepy state. "Skye, what are you doing?" he asked, putting a hand on her shoulder.

She bristled a little and turned to face him. "It's time for bed," she replied, turning the Cryo-Sleep knob up to 3 and lying back in her seat. "Good night…my sweet… friend…"

Before Ratchet could wonder aloud what she'd meant, he dozed off in the seat behind her.


	4. Bitter Cold Memories

Skye woke to a strange breeze of cold. With her eyes now trying to open, she forced herself to stare into the white of the day. It was winter here, for Ratchet and Clank had flown all the way to another planet.

Shivering, she sat up, wondering why they had landed here instead of another location. Perhaps they would explain. She called to them, but there was no response. The ship looked damaged and broken.

She began to worry and became frantic. No longer caring about her own safety, she headed out into the oncoming blizzard, the matching ground slowly making each step more gruesomely cold. She needed to find her friends! What if they were sick, or hurt?

Or Dead! Her thoughts only raced faster as she tried to push her way through the blistering cold and gusts of freezing snow, checking her watch every so often for no reason whatsoever. Every once in a while she would flop to the ground, wondering if she'd get the strength to continue.

Finally, after three hours of searching through the blizzard, her legs gave in from under her and she fell to the snow-covered ground. She slowly was becoming numb- she was quite aware of that long beforehand- but now the clutches of sleep and even death drew closer and closer. She cried silently and said her last goodbyes, and dropped her head into the snow.

She watched as a blurry vision began to appear in her mind- a gloomy battlefield, with burning buildings and disaster staining the once beautiful evening background. She was being carried, a young, furry, and catlike being holding her desperately in attempt to prolong her life.

Skye realized, subconsciously, that it was a memory. She felt entranced and continued moving through it, reliving her past, until-

"SKYE!" the furry being screamed, as the apprentice felt herself falling. Down, down, down she fell, further away from the being that seemed to love her so much. She screamed, descending down into the depths of a rocky ravine until-

She fell through a hole in a ceiling, onto a hard medical bed in a sterilized room. The doctors were examining her, explaining everything from her past. She yelled at them, demanding to see her parents, only to be told that they were deceased.

Skye's eyes flooded with tears. "What are you going to do with me?" she asked.

"To protect you… to keep you safe, we must put you under and into a cryogenic sleep, at least long enough that your genetic data can no longer be traced by-"

"What if he finds me? Wouldn't he kill me like he did with mother? With father?" she cried.

The head doctor kneeled down and smiled. "We promise that we won't let anything happen to you, and just to be sure, there's going to be a time clock with Vibraglass installed to keep anyone from getting in."

The nurse sterilized a small area on her arm and injected a blue liquid under her skin. Almost instantly, her vision became blurry until, after moments of swirling, starry visions, she passed out.

"Skye!"

The apprentice heard the male voice of her friend, but could not move to follow it. She tried to call to him, only able to emit a low, hoarse noise. Her throat, by the cold and wintery environment, had become red and dry.

A small figure appeared in the distance, and quickly yelled in an electronic but concerned voice, "Ratchet, come quick!"

The Lombax appeared and gasped, dashing towards her. "Skye!" he yelled, kneeling down on the snowy earth and vigorously shaking her from side to side. "Skye, wake up, please!" he cried. "Oh, god… Clank, what's wrong with her?"

"She's below normal temperature, and strangely enough," he replied, "it's even lower than the normal. It's almost like she has fur." He looked up at Ratchet. "We need to get back to the ship before she freezes to death."

Slinging her arm over his back, Ratchet shakily helped her up. "C'mon, Skye! Walk!" he grunted, digging his feet into the snow. He tried to get her to move, but the dead weight on his back only made him fall to the ground. For a moment, he thought he had heard her groan in pain.

He crawled out from under her and sighed. "When she's nothing but dead weight, I can't carry her." He thought for a moment and snapped his fingers. "I got it!"

He pulled out the remote-like Shrink Ray and pointed it at her. "Hang in there, Skye! We're gonna get you somewhere warm."

Skye felt a warm, almost painful sensation surround her. Her body began to feel less numb, but she was slipping under and into the dark depths of her own subconscious. Before she blacked out, the numbness of the icy cold surrounded her completely again in a white blanket of snow.

Ratchet knelt down and scooped Skye up in his palm, being very gentle with her, and began heading back to the ship. On the way, he held her up to his face and breathed, trying to keep her warm and quell the tiny shivers that so precariously made his senses heighten with nervousness.

As they reached the ship, Ratchet bent down to fix the damage to the right wing of the ship, trying hard to multitask and warm up Skye every once in a while. It was hard- the trio was out there for half an hour before they could lift off.

As Clank started up the ship and shut the cockpit hatch, he looked over at Ratchet. "Do you think she'll be alright?" he asked.

"I don't know, pal. She's getting colder and colder, and I don't know what to do to help her," Ratchet replied sadly. "What if she dies? I would be MY fault."

"DON'T THINK LIKE THAT!" Clank said, wanting only to wish for the best. "The torso is the warmest place on the body because it has more vital organs and therefore needs more blood. Maybe you should try holding her there."

"I'm not holding her up to my chest. Are you crazy?" Ratchet argued.

"You'd rather let her die than hold her for a few minutes?"

"Well no, but-"

"Then do it."

Ratchet reluctantly held her against his chest, her shivers slowly but surely fading as he stroked her hair with his index finger. "Wake up, Skye. Please..." he pleaded, just as the ship rocketed off into space.

Ratchet felt a movement against him and looked down at his hand, smiling as the registered movements were backed up by fidgeting. He nudged her with his pinky. "Wake up, Skye…"

The tiny apprentice heard a gentle but strong heartbeat beside her, and she pushed a nudging object away and yawned. As her eyes fluttered open, she became more and more shocked by the realization that was overcoming her. Her friend now towered over her, and the view nearly made her faint in terror.

"R-Ratchet?" she breathed, staring up at him in pure shock. "How did… what happened to me?"

"What, the nearly freezing to death or the trying to carry you back to the ship," he asked, trying to specify.

"WHY AM I SO SMALL?" she yelled.

Ratchet laughed a little. She was so cute when she was angry. "Well, I couldn't carry you and you'd warm up a lot faster like this."

Skye shivered and hugged his fur. "W-Well, it IS p-pretty cold out."

"Now that we've exited the gravity of the planet," Clank chimed in, "you won't have to worry about freezing over again."

Skye wasn't paying attention, nuzzling into Ratchet's fur even more. "You're… so soft. It almost reminds me of… someone I knew long ago…"

Ratchet was confused by this, by ignored it as he felt her small body up against his fur. A strange and sensual feeling shot up his spine. He shivered for a moment, wondering what had just happened.

"So, what WERE you doing on this planet anyway?" Skye asked, looking up at him with sparkling eyes.

"Something hit us, and so we were forced to land. You didn't wake up, though, so we left to go into the nearby town to get supplies. There was a fight there- more of Tenor's minions- and we finally were able to get out of dodge with some information on Tenor. Apparently, he has a base on Fastoon."

"I don't like the sound of that…" Ratchet said. "What if there's a trap waiting?"

He felt a quiver in his palms, and found Skye curled up into a ball. "Skye? What are you doing?"

"Mom…. Dad… w-wait!" she screamed, her trancelike state growing deeper and deeper until she finally snapped out of it and looked up at him. "What?"

"You were jabbering something about your mother and father," Clank said.

Skye gasped. "Was I speaking…? I'm… so sorry. I guess I keep remembering more about my past as the moments pass."

"Well, what do you know so far?" Ratchet asked.

"So far, I've only got a little bit. My parents are both gone. My dad went missing during a war and my mother died of terrible burns. I was born on a desert planet, and I was put into a state of cryogenic sleep. Other than that, I'm not very sure about myself. Some person was after my whole race, and the doctors who took care of me after I lost my family were trying to protect me from him."

Ratchet was suspicious, detecting something deeper. "Are you SURE that's everything?"

"Completely," she answered.

After being returned to her normal state, Skye began tinkering with a pile of circuit boards that she had packed with her. "Perhaps if I can get the right transistor, I'll be able to make this work correctly."

Ratchet looked over at her. "Remember, the problem may not be the transistor, but the way the power source is hooked to the receiver. Try tracing back the circuit's route and make sure that… Skye…"

"What?" she replied.

"We're landing. Buckle up."

Clank finished his landing on the desert planet of Fastoon and smiled at Ratchet. "That wasn't hard."

"Yep. You did a nice job, pal," Ratchet smiled, patting his robotic pal on the back. He jumped from the cockpit of the ship onto the ground and brushed himself up. "Perhaps we'll be able to wrap things up now."

Skye looked over at the gate to a large building and smiled, noticing the heavily armed robotic commandos walking back and forth. "Can I try my hand at something?"

"Like what?" Ratchet asked.

"The Pulse Rifle." Skye looked up at him hopefully. "I see guards over there, and I think their prepared for the worst enemy. They looked armed to the teeth."

Ratchet looked over the guards and sighed. "I'm not sure if you can handle it."

Skye took out the weapon and lay down on the ground. Using a rock as a stand, she aimed through the rifle's scope. Carefully and quietly, she breathed in and out at a slowing pace until the noise stopped. Time seemed to stand still as she held her breath, and, with the slightest of ease, drew back the trigger.

BOOM!

Skye looked over and the gate, where she saw a single robot hovering over towards their ship, its alert lights turning and a loud, buzzing noise clearly audible. She grimaced, her eye twitching slightly.

Ratchet pulled out a large, cannon like weapon out from the cargo slot of the ship and quickly fired it, the several shots enough to knock over the robotic guard and disable it. As Clank flung himself into Ratchet's harness, he smiled with the crazed look of a warrior heading into battle. "Skye, we got company!"


	5. Ambush on Fastoon

Skye fired again, knocking out a guard that stood at the edge of the hall. "We'll need to be faster if we want to give Tenor a 'warm welcome'," she said, unscrewing the bolts of a nearby vent. "C'mon, I bet this vent leads somewhere."

"I wouldn't go in there- it could lead to a furnace or something," Ratchet reasoned. "It would be a better plan to go towards the tower. I can hear some sort of radio signal."

"Well, I say that the duct will get us closer, as in 'get us to the room'."

"Well then, if you think so, then fine-we'll go. But don't expect me to have your back the whole time."

"Whatever."

Dark shadows pierced the eerie mood of the vent, and Skye sighed. "We haven't gotten anywhere in the past hour," Ratchet complained to her, but she only stared at him coldly and replied, "Too bad, keep going."

Ratchet pulled out the Shrink Ray and sighed. "If we're going to get anywhere, we may as well do it in comfort. This vent is killing me!"

Skye heard a sharp noise behind her and realized what Ratchet was doing. She sighed and said, "Alright, fine. I had it my way, so you can have it yours."

She braced herself as the electricity suddenly jolted through her, making her body feel light. She got a little dizzy, wanting to close her eyes to clear her mind. But, just as she did so, Ratchet woke her up.

"Skye, c'mon! We gotta get moving!" Ratchet said sternly. He got up and began to walk further into the dark vent.

"H-Hey! Wait for me!" Skye called, getting up and running after him.

"So, um, you never told me much about yourself," Skye panted, trying to manage her words.

"I'm an orphan- my father was killed and my mother is likely in a separate dimension." Ratchet looked at her. "It's a touchy subject, and a long story. I'm not sure you'd like the listen."

"We got time," the apprentice replied lightly.

"Well, it was a long time ago, when I was only an infant. The war took place on this very planet, and it was between my race and Emperor Percival Tachyon. Tachyon was attempting genocide, planning to avenge his own race, which was banished to another dimension. His plans eventually failed."

"Eventually?" Skye asked.

"The only supposed beings left in this dimension were my father and I. My father, Kaden, was the Keeper of the Dimensionator, a wormhole device used to travel to other dimensions. Father was cut down, but somehow I seemed to survive and escape. I was raised on Veldin for the next twenty or so years, after which I met Clank, and ever since it's been a search for my identity."

"I see. So, you're the last of your kind?"

"Yeah, the Last of the Lombaxes. Ever since the General died in the Great Clock."

"The General? Who is that?" Skye asked curiously.

"His name was Azimuth. Alister Azimuth. He sacrificed his life to save time itself."

"Alister… Azimuth…" Skye breathed. She recognized the name instantly, but did not know from where or when. She grabbed Ratchet around the arm as he walked and stopped cold in her tracks, and, breaking the eerie, dead silence, she whimpered out in an innocent voice,

"I… I know him."

"What? From where?" Ratchet asked.

"I'm not sure, but the name is important for some reason."

Ratchet sensed something about her- something that reminded him of the General, of home…

After they snuck out of the vent and returned themselves to normal, the trio sidled around the corner, the robotic commandos not noticing them a bit.

"There goes security," Ratchet said. "Why does this seem too easy?"

"Oh, you worry too much. We'll make it out of here before you can say…"

"Before I can say what?" Ratchet asked, and he turned his head so he could see her expression. Skye looked deadly terrified and as pale as cream cheese. "Are you okay?"

"Look out!" she screamed, tackling him to the ground and rolling to the left. Panting deeply, smiled. "That was close."

"Look out? What the heck happened?" he asked, pushing himself up off the chrome floor and brushing off his jeans. "What's going on?"

Skye pointed to the irregularly shaped hole in the floor, a thick, green substance surrounding the edges. "Acidic- you're lucky. Usually you can't see the guns until it's too late."

"Well, that must burn." Ratchet spotted another gun and dodged the blast, the acid it expelled hitting a metal wall and instantly eating away at it. "Is that all you got? Why don't you gimme a challenge?"

"Ratchet, don't test them!" Skye screamed, running towards him and pushing him out of the way. She pulled out the Pulse Rifle and quickly shot down two cannons from behind him.

"What are you doing Skye?" Ratchet yelled.

Skye looked at him. "Let's just say, things aren't as they appear." She looked at a security camera down the hall. "Show yourself, coward!"

"Why don't you up the third floor and see for yourself, stupid squishy!" a crackly, obnoxious voice taunted over an intercom.

Ratchet's eyes widened- he instantly recognized the voice and his primal instincts boiled up from inside him. "What are you doing here, Nefarious? You're supposed to be dead," the Lombax hissed.

"On the contrary, my furry nemesis, I am quite alive! So much planning to lure you here. Of course, I needed help to defeat you. So I figured out how to take you down the fastest way possible."

Ratchet didn't like the sound of that one bit, and he only got angrier. "What is it this time, Nefarious? Are you still out to kill me for revenge, you cogbrained freak?"

"Tsk tsk. Temper, temper, temper, Ratchet. Can you not see that you've fallen into a deathtrap? Tenor isn't a name of a criminal- it spells out a message. We are Tenor: The Evil Nemeses Of Ratchet (And Clank). Do you like it?"

Skye glared with Ratchet and snarled. "We? Nemeses? Who's with you?"

Another crackling voice came on over an intercom. "Well, well, well, we meet again, Lombax!"

Ratchet jumped. "How the heck did you get out of that void, Pervical?" he yelled, his ears perking a little. This just wasn't his day, was it?

"I'd love to tell you, but I'm sad to say it wouldn't make much sense you your little lady, would it?"

Ratchet blushed a little, but still held his ground. "What do you want?"

"The first time I laid eyes on you, you know exactly what I wanted!" Tachyon yelled.

Skye's face contorted in disgust. "Eww! Gross!"

"Not like that, you stupid girl!" Tachyon cried. "I wanted to kill you quickly, Ratchet, but now… I think I'd have more satisfaction of watching you suffer."

"Uh… Ratchet?" Clank asked, tapping him on the shoulder.

Ratchet turned to see a claw gripping Skye tightly by the leg and dragging her into the darkness of the hall. "Skye!" he screamed.

A mechanical noise echoed in the darkness, and a larger claw appeared, ready to strike. "Son of a-"

The claw constricted him and dragged him in the same direction as Skye, and he desperately tried to search for a grip. But his searching was fruitless as he was dragged into a room.

A commando looked at him with mechanically glowing eyes. An arm shot up, a cannon loading with some sort of needle. Ratchet grimaced. "You've GOT to be kidding me!" he grumbled, and braced himself as the needle was fired under his skin.

Ratchet felt himself swirling and spiraling into unconsciousness. "T-Tachyon? What do you plan to do to her?"

"Only time will tell, Lombax."


	6. Escape from Fortress Gamma

Ratchet woke to a bloodcurdling scream. Snapping his eyes open, he turned to the source of the scream, a horrified expression spread quickly over his face.

Across the room, Skye was shackled up to a futuristic device. It ran electrical pulses through her body, making her screech in pain. The blue current shot through her skinny body, tickling every fiber of her being with a scalding burn until she belted out another long, dreadful cry.

"Skye!" Ratchet yelled, struggling to break from a pair of braces that held him against a device like the one used on Skye.

He looked around, searching for his buddy, Clank. All at once he looked down, surprised that he was not pried from the Lombax's side. "What's going on? Why are we here?" he asked the robot companion.

"Tachyon is over in the control booth on the other side of the room. He has control of the electrical current emitters that are set to harm Skye." Clank paused, examining the rest of the situation. "He said something about information."

Suddenly, Tachyon's scratchy voice came onto the speakers. "WHERE IS THE TOWER OF LATIRIUS?"

"I'm not going to say a word to you! Not after what you've done to me!" Skye screamed, followed by a long, electrical pulse and screeching from the apprentice's lungs.

"You will tell me, or I'll have you killed along with your species, stupid girl!" the crazed Cragmite cried.

"Why would I tell you that, you murderer? My mother burned to death because of you!" she growled, looking at the blacked out window where she knew Percival was sneering. She couldn't help but feel angry- her memories kept flashing in her mind. She knew that she had been lying this whole time.

Another painful wave was sent through her, and she screamed out something in pure horror. "If I tell you, will you let them go?"

"Huh?" Tachyon asked.

"If I tell you… where the tower is, will you let the boys be free?" Skye requested.

The Cragmite snorted. "Why in the cosmos would I do that? They're a nuisance as it is, so I may as well put them out of their misery."

"I know more about them than you think," Skye lied, trying to get him to take it offer, all the while slowly and carefully slipping her hands and feet out of the machine's harnesses. "You're too weak to stop them by yourself, you know. I could help you. I know everything about them-their habits and memories… and their FEARS…"

"Oh, yes, I'd love to learn more, girl, but I'd rather do it myself. After all, he is the last of his kind."

"Who said anything about that- he may have the only key to destroying the rest of his race. You mustn't kill him now."

"Skye," Ratchet groaned. "Why are you talking like that?"

"Shh," Clank warned.

"Plus, I still have information on the tower. If you were to get up there… who knows how much power you'd have."

"Yes," Tachyon cried. "I could finally rule this galaxy!"

"Aren't you forgetting that Nefarious is with you?"

"…I'll overthrow him- he may be taller, but his primitive robotic mind is no match against my intelligence."

"Well said, sir. Now, if you'd please. Release them."

"Very well, girl."

Ratchet and Clank hit the floor and ran towards Skye, suddenly trying to pry the harnesses off of her.

"Boys, stop. I'll be alright. Just do one thing for me, okay?" she asked.

She moved her head to face Clank, and gently spoke in a strange and foreign language. Clank nodded, understanding, and turned to leave.

Ratchet tagged along, every two seconds asking what she had said, and as the door shut, Skye grinned happily- she knew very well that it wasn't over for her yet.

She fulfilled her end of the deal, but as another jolt was being charged up to kill her, she broke the harnesses and grinned. "See ya, sucker!"

"Will you PLEASE tell me what she said?"

Clank looked up at Ratchet. "I'm not sure how to word it. She said something that's hard to translate. For a few moments, I didn't recognize the dialect or even the language itself."

Ratchet was extremely curious. "What did she say, Clank?"

"The best I translated it to was 'Thank you for all you've done to help me. Ratchet, you're really lucky to have a friend like Clank, and your mother would be very proud. I'm sorry that I lied.'"

"Lied? About what?" Ratchet asked. "Oh, no. Don't tell me she rigged the microwave with halogen power again…"

"I don't think she was talking about that. There's something awfully strange about her- something about her origin- that I just can't put my finger on."

"What about the blood scans?" Ratchet asked. "Anything fishy about those? You said something was interesting about the scan."

"The DNA Blood Scan took in a reading with something very odd. What the test believed to be her species does not match the phenotype."

"The female what?"

"Physical Characteristics."

"What do you mean? What's abnormal about the scan?"

"The results came up as negative for her species, but positive for-"

BOOOOOOMMM!

The door blew open, a smiling apprentice appearing from the debris that began to fog the hallway. She ran up to the boys and yelled, "Let's split!"

Ratchet smiled. "You don't have to tell me twice."

As the alarms began to sound, Skye lead the boys around another corner. She urged them further away from the main hall and peered around the corner. "Alright, if we can get to the lock and jam the zenith, we can use the chrome spring inside to unlock the door to the ship dock. From there we can-"

"Hold up. Clank translated what you had said before in some, I don't know, foreign language. What do you mean by 'I lied'?"

Skye looked at him. "I really don't have the time or energy to explain this. There are things that you don't know about me- things that could hurt you and change everything you may have already learned about me."

"I'm curious!"

Skye grabbed the Shrink Ray off of Ratchet's belt. "We need to leave- faster."

She shrunk Ratchet and Clank down and gently picked them up. "You boys ready?"

"Why won't you explain it?" Ratchet persisted in frustration. "What are you keeping from me?"

Clank tugged on Ratchet's pant leg. "We're in danger right now. Perhaps this isn't a good time."

"Agreed," Skye responded. She set the boys in the pocket of her tan cargos. "You better hang on to something- it's going to get bumpy really fast."

Before Ratchet could shout another reply, the apprentice hastily dashed to the lock. Pulling out a small, jagged device, she quickly plunged the end of it into the lock, watching as there were a few flashes and sparks. After a moment, the doors gently slid open and allowed her to pass.

After pulling out the lock pick, she began her sprint across the ship dock, trying to outrun the tsunami of robots that followed her. Her side began to cramp and she knew with certainty that the boys were shaken up.

As she reached the edge of the dock, she realized that she was trapped. In front of her was a deep and narrow canyon, with scorching orange walls and a very small river at the bottom. Her legs kept moving. The stream suddenly began to grow bigger as she dashed off the cliff's edge.

The rapids greeted her with a steady current of water, the fresh liquid flowing into her mouth and nostrils and depriving her of air. She kicked and screamed, trying to clutch the nearest rock, but it wasn't until she had barely enough strength to survive that she finally pulled herself up against a rock.

Foggily taking into account the speed of the current, she pushed off the rock with her last bit of strength and drifted to shore as she blacked out.


	7. Masked in Amnesia

Ratchet shook his barely-breathing apprentice again. "Wake up!"

"Huh? What?" Skye groaned.

"You've been unconscious for hours! Are you crazy? We nearly drowned!" Ratchet yelled. "We could have died because of your stunt back there!"

Skye looked up groggily. "I'm… s-so sorry. Those people… my mother died because of…HIM." She burst into tears. "This is my fault! I'm regaining every memory I forced myself to forget a year ago, and now everything is coming back together. I never wanted this to happen."

Clank looked at her. "Does this have something to do with your past? Your family?"

"It has everything to do with that!"

"Why don't you explain…"

After starting a fire, the trio sat down, trying to figure out exactly what was going on. Skye pulled up her sleeve to reveal her metallic watch. "This device was timed to keep me looking like this for a year."

"Wait," Ratchet interrupted. "This isn't REALLY what you look like?"

"No, and in exchange for a different appearance, temporarily lost my memory. It slowly began to come back over the course of the year. I know now that it's going to stop cloaking my true self any minute now."

"So, it's a transmorpher?" Ratchet asked. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"I didn't want you to know. I didn't want anyone to know. It's dangerous being who I really am. I honestly didn't want anyone to kill me. On top of that, there's only one other of my kind in this universe, and he doesn't even know me for who I truly am."

"That's awful. Are you on your own?" Clank asked. How long was she with this person? Days? Months? YEARS? So many questions whirred in his mind.

"Not since I've met him. He seems very distant."

Ratchet sighed. "So, um… how old are you? Really?"

"What do you mean?" Skye asked.

"When we were on the tundra planet yesterday, Clank said something about you being in a coma for years."

Skye sighed. "I was under cryogenic sleep for two years. That, combined with the year of memory I lost, exacts to 21 years old. The effects of being in a coma for so long were stunted growth."

"If you're a different species, where are you from?" Ratchet asked.

"I'm not sure how to put it, exactly. The planet I come from is warm and has jungle terrain. The air is breathable, the jungle forest is rainy, and the plateaus are large a hot a dry as a bone. It my language, it's called Aphelionra Hemitri, or "Angel's Paradise".

"Aphelion…" Ratchet breathed. "Isn't that the Lombax word for angel?" Ratchet started to put the puzzle pieces together. "Why did you say my mother would be proud? Why did you say you lied?"

"I hid myself from this dimension for a year in order to forget my own past. My mother knew yours. She was described as a wonderful as social woman. I forgot everything about myself. I'm sorry; I am allowed to speak no more."

Skye got up and ran a little ways, taking a blanket from the ship and wrapping herself in it. "There's so much pain," she whispered to herself.

Ratchet pursued her until he reached a small but hollow tree. Skye was sitting down inside, with her legs against her chest and her arms folded. Her head was nestled in her arms and from beneath her completely blanket-covered body he could hear a soft and sorrowful sobbing.

"D-don't cry."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, DON'T CRY? Have you ever experienced lying to the only other of your species, Ratchet? Have you ever felt that kind of guilt?"

"Another of my species? What do you mean?"

"Clank never told you about the blood scan, did he? It would have told you everything. How come you didn't realize it every time you rubbed up against me to calm me with a hug? Did you feel the fuzziness? That wasn't your fur…"

Ratchet looked at her calmly and wrapped his arms around her middle. He knew something was different about her- her physical shape was different all of a sudden. In a chilling tone, he breathed, asking, "Who are you, Skye?"

Skye was no longer shivering as she sniffled and drew in a calm breath to speak. "Alright, Ratchet. I'll tell you the truth. My name is Skye Flint Azimuth, daughter of General Alister Azimuth. And," she sighed, pulling the blanket of her head, "the youngest engineer of the Center for Advanced Lombax Research."


	8. Skye Explains

As Skye and Ratchet rejoined Clank at the fire, the little robot sensed a bitter vibe from his partner. He looked over at Ratchet and tilted his head slightly, and his eyes narrowed in suspicion that something was wrong. "Ratchet," he finally spoke, "what's wrong?"

Skye looked over. "Don't bother him. He's upset because I hid myself for so long."

"Hid yourself? What for?"

"To search and rescue any survivors. You know my blood type, what the phenotype was."

Clank sighed. "I should have remembered to tell Ratchet back on Hetarion, the tundra planet. It's my fault for not informing him."

"No, it's not. It's mine- I gained all the memories right before the ambush. I'm to blame, not you." Skye looked down at the ground, her now sea-blue eyes watering. "I'm so stupid and selfish!"

Ratchet winced, the familiar wailing creating a splintering twinge of pain to his sensitive ears. "Look… you're not stupid OR selfish. You just have problems like everyone else. How do you think I acted before I met Clank? I was totally selfish and even lazy! Perhaps you didn't make the right decision at the time, but the past is the past. There's nothing anyone can do to change it. Even your father learned that… but I'm sad to say, he learned it the hard way."

Skye's white ears twitched a little, and the maroon stripes on them flicked a tiny spark of red into the night. "You're right," she sighed. "The past is irrelevant now. I need to focus on the future."

Clank looked at her a little bit more. "You look like your father."

" So many of my friends back home have told me that," Skye replied.

Ratchet perked up. "Where is your 'home' exactly? Isn't it, you know… in another dimension?"

"Yes," Skye answered. "In the dimension where the other Lombaxes live, there is a planet known as Aphelionra Hemitri. On that planet is Chromatis City, where the members of CALR live and meet. So, naturally, that is where I live."

"So you're an Elder of the Center for Advanced-"

"Yes, the second youngest to reach the status of Head Elder," Skye informed, her tone slightly irritated.

"Second?" Ratchet asked. "Who was the youngest member?"

"His name was Kaden. His intelligence was beyond my own, they said. The only one who was smarter than me? I wish I could have met him. The other center members told me that he was left in this dimension with his infant son. I was sent to locate them."

"I hate to inform you of this, Miss Azimuth," Clank replied, "but only one of them survived. Kaden died under Tachyon's wrathful fist, and as for his son… well…"

Skye looked at the blonde Lombax sitting next to the little robot. "You're… you're Kaden's son?"

"That's what Alister said when he mistook me for an assassin. I suppose you aren't one either?" Ratchet gazed into the fire. "Sorry, everything is just happening so fast. I just can't think right now."

"Then don't," Skye said. "What good are thoughts when they are idle?"

Clank nodded. "Right. But, wait… why were you concerned about coming here and finding Kaden in the first place?"

"My caretaker told me about my father's relationship with Kaden. When I was born, Alister wanted Kaden to be my godfather."

"It makes sense," Ratchet replied. "I mean, they WERE best buds before he was tricked by Tach…"

Skye looked at him. "My father… he… what?"

"Your father accidentally caused the disappearance of his race due to trusting Percival, despite Kaden's warnings," Clank explained.

"I… oh… I see… so the Disappearance… was… Alister's fault?"

"He exiled himself, and after realizing what damage the Great Clock could cause, he replaced the Master Switch with his own wrench and reversed the time shift back to normal. As for the price... I'm sad to say this, but… he's gone."

"You don't mean-" Skye yelled, and she cried, turning her head away and burying her face in her hands. "You're lying! He's still out there, I know it!"

"Skye, I'm sorry," Ratchet mumbled, walking over to the white Lombax and stroking her furry arm to calm her down. He pulled out a gold watch from his pocket. "All I have to show you is this."

Skye turned, her red and itchy eyes focusing on the broken watch's luster. Within it was a clock face, as well as a picture of her father and Kaden. "Oh Orvus, Clank…" she breathed. "I look like my father…"

"Told you so."

"What am I going to do, though…"

Ratchet looked at her. "What d'ya mean, Skye?"

"Now that my original quest has ground to a screeching halt, I can't go back home."

"Go back home? How did you get here?"

"I built a wormhole device. What else could get me here?"

"Like the Dimensionator?" Ratchet asked.

"Not as advanced, no. My work will never- and I mean NEVER- measure up to your father's. It WAS designed for two way travel, however…"

"However, what?"

"N-nevermind about that. What's important right now is that we need to figure out Nefarious' and Tachyon's plans."

"R-right!" Ratchet realized, and he stood up. "Before you woke up, they launched an escape pod to their next location- Kalidon."

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get going!"

After Skye had fallen asleep in the back seat, Clank whispered something to Ratchet. "Do you have the suspicion that she's not telling us everything?"

"Relax Clank," Ratchet said. "With how much she's gone through in the past day, I wouldn't be surprised. I'd skip minor details too if I were electrocuted a dozen times and forced into running for my life."

Clank sighed. Something just didn't seem right about Skye…


	9. Battle at Kalidon Megaplex

"Skye, wake up."

"Huh?"

"WAKE UP!"

Skye felt Ratchet's skinny finger poking her in the gut, and she twitched crazily. "What the HELL are you doing?" she yelled, rubbing her reddened hip and glaring at the blonde Lombax.

"Sorry, it was the only way I could think of," Ratchet replied sheepishly. He crossed his arms. "Kalidon… I was captured here once- not very fun."

"Well, once we find Tachyon and Nefarious, we can put an end to this and the Tower won't be in danger."

"What is it about this tower, anyway?" Ratchet asked, turning his head towards a tall structure.

Skye's face became serious. "According to ancient lore, the tower is the highest point in the universe, give or take five feet, therefore a power node capable of controlling entire planets. If one goes up there, he could rule ALL the worlds. The only thing that is needed to activate it is the Sapphire of Solana. That'll stay safe though."

"Why is that?" Clank asked.

"I was given a task to protect it. I've worn it around my neck since I-" She reached up to grab the stone, but the necklace, she realized, was stolen. "Oh, shit," she groaned.

"Lemme guess," Ratchet said. "Tachyon took it."

"Great! Just great! I let my guard down for one minute and by the next one it's gone. Man, I should have hidden it better!" Skye began to yell angrily at herself, thumping her head against the side of the ship. "What is wrong with me?"

"Skye," Ratchet replied, "there's nothing wrong with you. Everyone makes mistakes. Even… even Clank."

Clank narrowed his eyes. "Hey! What are you talking about, Mr. 'It's probably just a misprint' Klutzy!"

"I told you, it wasn't my fault that we went the wrong direction. The exit sign was out of my range of vision."

Skye took the Blitz Cannon out of the cargo area. "Uh, guys. We need to get inside now."

Neither of them seemed to be paying attention. She fired a few shots into the air. "Shut up!"

Ceasing their bickering, the boys looked at her. "Alright, alright. Quit being so impatient."

Skye aimed a laser at the door and fired, creating an opening. "Let's go!"

They followed Skye through the makeshift entrance and turned the corner. Running through this building wasn't going to be a cakewalk.

Ratchet yanked Skye back so she wouldn't go too far ahead. "What do you expect us to do?"

"We need to head for the control room in the main tower."

"Huh?"

"The main tower has a control room where a high pitched radio signal is being sent off. Since the coordinates were coded for this planet, he's likely to be hiding some sort of control to a weapon of mass destruction."

Clank looked at her. "Since when have you been able to hear signals that high?"

"During my time on my home planet I was trained to hear very well. It's usually natural with Lombaxes, though studies show that survivors of the Great War have damaged audio perception. I'm not surprised with Ratchet- he hasn't had formal training."

"Does listening to loud music count?"

"That depends on the frequency and the volume." Skye looked at them. "We need to get to the tower anyway. Watch my back guys- I'll guide ahead."

"What about traps?" Clank asked.

"I'm not called 'Quicksilver Queen' for nothing." She noticed a crevice in the wall. "Ratchet, you better duck."

As Ratchet and Skye were side-by-side ahead, Clank noticed something rather odd about Skye. Her balance was a little bit off. Strange, didn't she say her ears were great?

Maybe it was because she didn't have the distinctive tail that she was moving side to side a little bit…

Clank also remembered what she had said the night before. _The wormhole device was built for two way travel… but…_

Was there something about the device that she was hiding? It's location, perhaps?

Clank pondered in his mind as he caught up with the Lombax pair that was locked in battle with cannon-bearing robotic commandos. Aiming a small plasma rifle, he shot at the taller, more heavily built robots until the trio had successfully removed the commandos from the hallway.

Skye looked at the boys. "Well, the command room is in here. Hopefully there'll be a self-destruct button…"

She accessed the scanning pad to open the room. Taking out a card from a commando, she scanned the code and unlocked the door, only to find another lock. "Great… the only way to get through this is a bypass code."

Clank looked at her and smiled. "Need a hand?"

"Thanks."

Ratchet kicked down the door to the room. "You two are through!"

Skye looked at him. "They aren't here."

"Surprise!"

Before they could say anything, Nefarious jumped from the shadows. "Well, well, well… what have we here? A little relationship?"

"Enough Nefarious!" Ratchet yelled. "I didn't come all this way to have you piss me off. I sent you hurtling away on an asteroid, I watched the ship crash into your space station. Heck, I teamed up with you to get us out of your own machine. This is the last thing I need."

"Apart from a bath?" Tachyon's crackling voice asked.

The panel below Ratchet fell open, and he plunged into a tank of cold liquid. He struggled and kicked, his wet fur heavily flattened against him. "What are you up to this time?"

A loud noise abruptly hissed into the chamber as the trapdoor Ratchet fell through was closed over with a pane of plexiglass. Over a small intercom in the tank, Tachyon cackled. "The noise you are hearing is Carbon Monoxide hissing through the vents. One way or another, you'll suffocate, and your sweet little apprentice will have to watch you die."

Skye looked at Ratchet through the glass, and tears dripped onto her side of its surface. She looked up at the Cragmite and glowered. "You fiend! Why bother with him?"

"Quiet, fool! You have no power over me. You father made a folly… and look where we are now! Now you've made a folly by letting your best friend get hurt! How pathetic… and you'd think the apple would've fallen a little further from-"

"Shut up, Percival! You have no right to treat my race this way! Your family wasn't killed- they were banished! We banished ourselves later to the same place! The war is over, Tachyon! Stop living in the past!"

"Liar! The past is what shapes the universe! If I live off it, I will soon live off my brighter future! Imagine a new world, a new galaxy. Everything would be perfect! No war, no strife!"

Ratchet, with a slightly hazed vision, watched Skye get angrier. "What are you doing?"

"I'm not a liar! No universe is worth living in without its diversity, Tachyon! Even you knew that! Even as a council member, you had the potential, and you wasted it by living a past that you thought was better! You have no idea how well your race is living now, do you? They could be friends with the Lombaxes! Allies!"

"Our kind," Tachyon grumbled, "would never work with your inferior race!"

"And what about Ratchet's family? What about my uncle? He was your friend when no one else would be! You're a traitor, Tachyon! A TRAITOR!"

"SILENCE! Enough of you, whelp! I won't tolerate your jabber for another minute! Run away now like a good Lombax… just like your father!"

"I TOLD YOU TO SHUT UP!" Skye screamed, pulling out a pulse rifle and firing. The beam hit a metal plate inches from Tachyon's forehead and bounced off the walls, eventually hitting and shattering the glass pane. The deadly gas began to enter the room.

As Skye went to attack Tachyon, Clank ran towards the tank's edge and helped a barely conscious Ratchet out of the icy water. "Are you alright?"

"Y-yeah, I'm just shaken. Th-that's all."

He heard a thud and looked over to see a bruised and beaten Lombax on the floor. He ran over to her and shook her. "Wake up!"

Tachyon's robotic throne loomed over him. "There's a saying, Lombax that if one can't live without another, they should die with them? Don't you agree?"

Ratchet looked at him. "You're not killing anyone." He looked at the Shrink Ray that hung from Skye's belt and got an idea.

Tachyon rose one of the robotic feet to crush them both. "Well, at least you get to die together… how sweet. I'll have to clean the mess up later, but, you know, universal domination is worth it." He went to put his foot down, but just as he did, there was a flash, and the Lombaxes were gone. "W-what?" Tachyon cried. "Where did they go?"

Beneath the foot of the walking throne, Ratchet grinned, happily and quietly congratulating himself on the calculation. He had lodged himself in a crevice under the robotic foot, allowing him safety and an excellent hiding spot. The downside, of course, was that one of his arms had to remain around Skye, who passed out under the rays dizzying effects. The other was straining to keep them there.

Tachyon grumbled and stared at Nefarious. "Let's get out of here. The robot's not worth it." Tachyon ejected the seat of his throne, which hovered over to Nefarious.

The villains fled towards an escape pod door. Upon opening it, they found Nefarious's female friends. Percival stared at the evil robot and raised his eyebrows. "Who the heck are THEY?"

"What? I need company, too!"

"Forget it," Tachyon said, shutting the door as the ladies giggled. "Let's get to the next planet."

Clank cantered over to the foot of the robo-throne. "I take it he can't see very well."

Ratchet crawled out from under the foot, dragging Skye out with him. "Heh. Guess I just got lucky."

"Lucky doesn't keep you alive by itself."

Skye woke slowly and stared at Ratchet. "What happened?"

"Well, you got beat up and then we were about to be crushed so I used the Shrink Ray and… You're not mad, are you?"

"…yeah, a little, but not at you."

"I take it Tachyon had relations with your uncle?" Clank asked.

"I think I punched a nerve of his a little too hard. He could read him like a book- forwards, backwards, and upside-down. He was Percival's only friend. But, there was a time when he had to tell him what happened to his race. That day, they both changed. Percival became bitterer and favored solitary work; while my uncle was busy making his dreams come true for the future generations of his kind. They grew apart and began to no longer trust each other. When it was too late- when Tachyon declared war- their emotions for each other escalated from mistrust to pure hatred."

"Sounds like a tragic movie that you watch on a Saturday night," Ratchet said.

"I know. It's harsh what kind of reality he lived in. Sometimes I almost feel sorry for him." She sighed. "But the past is the past, and we shouldn't tamper with it." With that, the white Lombax collapsed from exhaustion.

"Agreed," Ratchet said. After returning himself to normal, he picked up Skye off the floor and carried her to the door. "Clank?"

The robot turned from his position by the escape pod's air lock. "Yes?"

"Let's go. I think she's had enough for one day."


	10. Incoming Call

Skye felt hot a dizzy, as though she were suffering heat stroke. She tossed around a little bit and yelped. Within her mind, she could only imagine herself in a bed, sleeping, a monster hiding under the bed when, in fact, the blankets are the only monster you encounter. She realized her claustrophobia was coming back.

She screamed and woke up in the backseat of the ship, sleeping on a folded blanket under a small handkerchief. She realized that Ratchet hadn't un-shrink her yet. Not only that- she was only in her undergarments.

She sat up and stared at Ratchet for the next five minutes before proceeding to scream again.

Ratchet was startled by the high-pitched noise enough that he jumped a little in his seat. He looked back at her and reached his hand to engage the autopilot. His hand moved a little too far, but just as he was about to press the eject button, Clank's robotic hand stopped him and directed him to the autopilot switch.

Getting up, he climbed into the back and stared at Skye curiously, as though it were the first time that he'd seen her this small.

Skye stared at him. "Ratchet…"

The voice startled him again. "Yes?"

"WHERE ARE MY CLOTHES?"

Clank turned to stare at her. "Well, they were covered in blood. We tried to wash them out, but… when we went to use the machine, all of the clothes in the load turned pink."

Skye groaned. "Great… now I'm gonna look like a freaking prep!"

"Just kidding!" Clank said. "I can make a joke sometimes too, can't I?"

Ratchet looked at her. "You really were bleeding hard." He put his hands together and held them out to his little apprentice.

"I can tell- the blood loss is making me dizzy." Skye looked at him and, wrapping the handkerchief around her body, climbed into his hands. She smiled as Ratchet gently climbed back into his seat and fastened his seatbelt.

Clank pulled down the center seat and set down Skye's clothes for tomorrow, which, apparently, were shrunk ahead of time to avoid a problem. Skye jumped from Ratchet's palm on the seat and quickly pulled her cargos up her legs. After buttoning the fly, she tossed the black babydoll tee over her head and pulled it down. Finally, she brushed her hair with her hands and felt her limbs and torso in case a tracker was planted.

After finishing, she pushed the handkerchief into a cup holder and sat down. "So, where are we heading, anyway?"

"Somewhere."

"That's not very specific…"

Clank looked at Ratchet. "You could at least tell her where we are going."

Ratchet grumbled under his breath. "Torren IV. We're going to Torren IV."

"What system?" Skye asked, toying around with a strand of her long, red hair.

"Breegus," Clank answered. "We're gathering information before heading out." He looked up at Ratchet. "Do you think we'll find any books on linguistics? It could be useful."

"Don't know, don't care. Just want to get in and get out before there's emotional problems."

Skye looked at him. "Huh?"

Clank sighed. "Skye, this was your father's last home before he… well…"

"Oh…" Skye looked down and sniffed. "I guess you don't want to take me along with you, then."

"That's not it, Skye," Ratchet replied. "It's just…"

"No, I get it. That's fine. At least un-shrink me before you leave."

"We're not leaving you! We just didn't want to bawling over your father!"

Skye's eyes stopped welling with tears and she looked at him. "You big dummy! My ears are sensitive, remember! God, it's bad enough that I hear high pitches, but it's even worse at this height!"

"Sorry…" Ratchet said quietly. "Won't do that again."

As they touched down, Skye leapt out of the ship and smiled, feeling the warm breeze against her fur. "It's so wonderful!"

"You think so?" Ratchet asked. "I always thought of vacationing here."

"Nevermind, you ruined my moment."

As she finished packing a day's worth of food, water, and ammo, she looked for the Shrink Ray. She slyly grinned as she watched it swing back and forth from Ratchet's belt. With the slightest of ease, she walked up to him and unlatched it from his waist, but just as she was about to hook it to her's, a gloved hand grabbed her wrist.

"What do you think you're doing with that?" Ratchet asked.

"I'm hiding it from you, that's what! After what happened on Kalidon, I'm not letting you use this on me without my permission."

"That's no excuse- I saved your life!"

"Life, schmife! I saved yours!"

"Yeah, with your faulty aiming!"

"Uh, guys," Clank said, getting annoyed.

Ratchet continued. "Seriously, who holds a gun like that?"

"Your mom, that's who. Don't mock my mad skills." Skye stuck her tongue out at him.

"You're really pissing me off."

"Guys…" Clank called.

"Well, it's better to be pissed off than pissed on, Mr. I Wanted To Keep The Iguana In The Apartment! I had to steam clean under the FLOOR because of how bad it was!"

"GUYS!" Clank yelled. "Stop arguing. We're burning daylight!" He took the Ray from them. "If you two are going to argue, wait until we're done saving the universe. I'll hang onto it."

"Geez, way to be a sourpuss..."

The traversed down the canyon wall, trying to quickly get to the edge of Monoloth Fields. They finally reached a house at a deserted point in the canyon.

"Well, this is it."

"Is this really my father's house?" Skye asked, and she jumped up and grabbed the balcony with her hands. She pulled herself up onto the deck. "Well, c'mon! You can at least jump high, right?"

"Heh… about that… I can't jump as high or far as you OR your father."

Skye giggled sweetly. "Use the launchpad to get up here then."

Ratchet stepped onto the circular platform, which boosted him into the air. He landed, thankfully, on his own two feet in front of her. "Ta daaah!"

Skye smiled and clapped, then instantly turned around to look inside. "Whoa… look at all these charts!"

"Your father LOVED the Great Clock, the seed of his destruction," Clank explained.

"I can see," Skye said, holding up a notebook filled with sketches of it. "It seems that wasn't the only thing he was trying to do. Turn back time, I mean. Looks like he was trying to construct a plan for a wormhole device."

"How would you know that?"

Skye held up the sketch and pointed to the writing. Ratchet tilted his head and squinted, but he couldn't make out the letters. "I don't understand."

"What do you mean? You're a Lombax, aren't you?"

Clank unfastened himself from Ratchet's back. "I think what he means is that he's illiterate to Lombax."

Skye smacked herself on the forehead. "Of course! Why didn't I remember that? I'm guessing you don't speak it, either."

"Only the word for angel."

"That'll get you far enough…" Skye said sarcastically. "Anyway, it's missing vital components. Things that an idiot could find in a hardware store. How ironic…"

"Like what?"

"A couple of hexagonal washers here and there, loose bolts, and a triggering mechanism."

"That doesn't seem like too much…"

"There's another big hole in this plan of his." Skye pointed at a large area on the device. "There's no power source strong enough to create a wormhole. The closest thing to the power source necessary is a hypernova, a phenomenon that happens when stars bigger than the Sun die. The gravity pulls everything in and it gets so intense that it defies the laws of physics."

"So, reality doesn't really exist in a black hole?"

"Actually, quite contrary. It's how this universe was created- the black whole took light in on one end, and spewed it out the other end, resulting in pressure so immense that it caused a 'Big Bang'."

"So, if the device tried to be successful, it would likely cause a big explosion or something?" Ratchet asked.

"It's likely. Which makes wormhole devices EXTREMELY dangerous."

"Why would he want to go home?" Clank asked.

"Probably to see his child. To see me." Skye set down the sketches. "Ratchet, you were right- I need to get out."

"Why?"

"This is way too stressful." Skye ran outside, with Ratchet and Clank following her close behind. She turned to face them. "I need time to myself," she said firmly. "Don't follow."

She jumped across a small gap to a cliff overhang, a ledge where she could cry by herself. She sat down and curled up, a single leg held against her, the other hanging down. She sobbed. Why had she left her home? Why?

She failed to realize that Ratchet had followed her to the ledge as she asked questions to herself. The salty tears began to burn at her face, her pale fur getting damp where the tears hit. "Why did you follow me anyway?" she asked.

Ratchet jumped in surprise. So she really had noticed…

He sat down cross-legged next to her and rubbed her back, trying to calm her down. "Why are you so upset about your father?"

"Do you want to know the real reason that I left?" Skye asked.

"Sure, I don't mind hearing you talk. I'd like to understand your problem."

"Well, in truth, I-"

All of a sudden, she heard a beep from her watch. "Huh?"

Ratchet looked at the screen on the face of the wristwatch. It said 'incoming call' in bright, blue letters.

Skye looked at him. "Just… forget it. I didn't want to talk about it anyway." Tapping at the glass of the device, she pressed accept call and the screen hovered up and expanded. "Who's call me? I haven't had a signal since I left my home."

Ratchet stared at the screen as the resolution suddenly became good enough to see the figures. "Hello?"

Skye's eyes widened and Ratchet realized that she recognized the voice. He watched as she responded.

"This is Skye Azimuth, who is this?" Skye asked.

"Skye? I haven't heard you for three years! Where were you?" the voice answered back. It was distinctly male and was a little higher than Ratchet's voice.

"Do I really need to talk about it? And why isn't your camera working? All I see is a blur!"

The picture's resolution increased, at which point Skye also adjusted hers. "It's been a long time, hasn't it, Sprockett."


	11. Friendly Conversation

"Where have you been all this time? It's been, like, ages!"

Sprockett smiled as he saw the smiling face of his old best friend. She smiled back at him and spoke. "There was a lot of stress and I needed time away."

Ratchet smiled and waved at Sprockett through the camera. The teenage Lombax, Sprockett, raised his eyebrows. "Who is that? Where are you exactly?"

Skye laughed. "You're never going to believe this- I'm in the Polaris Galaxy!"

Sprockett only stared at her. "Were you messing around with your wormhole device thingy you kept telling me about?"

"Yeah," Skye replied sheepishly. "Hey, where's my uncle?"

"He went to get hardware for… oh, speak of the devil! He's home already! Hang on a minute." He ran off from a workshop area, and in the background Ratchet and Skye could hear voices. Suddenly, an older looking Lombax, who seemed in his mid-thirties, ran into the room. One of his eyes was misty, as if something had been sprayed into it. "Skye Flint Azimuth! I am ashamed of you! When you get back I swear I'll-" He stopped as his eyes were fixated upon Ratchet. "K-Kaden?"

Skye rolled her eyes. "No, Uncle Kelvyn. This is Ratchet. He's Kaden's… Kaden's…"

"Kaden's son," Ratchet finished. "Sorry, she's been having emotional issues lately."

"Ah, the old bashful technique. She used to reel in lovers with that one…"

"Uncle! I thought we wouldn't EVER talk about that!"

"So this is your uncle?" Ratchet asked. "The one who had been friends with Tachyon before-"

The older Lombax on screen laughed, his white teeth open and grinning. "My twin brother is who you're talking about. His name was-"

"Um," Sprockett said, tugging at his arm. "Skye got into trouble while using the wormhole device."

"Ah, yes… I was wondering where it went off to." Kelvyn scratched his furry head and looked at his niece. "You have it, right?"

"I wish," Skye asked.

"You sold it, didn't you?"

"Yeah, what of it? How was I supposed to get money to survive? Bolts don't grow on trees, ya know!"

"That was a single use device, and you wasted it? Didn't I teach you any responsibility?" Kelvyn pinched the bridge of his nose. "Skye, what am I going to do with you?"

"I don't think you can really do anything, considering the circumstances." She narrowed her eyes. "We have more important concerns. Tachyon's still around, and he's teamed up with a robotic villain named Nefarious. Ratchet and I have been trying to figure out what he wants, and we discovered that he's been trying to get to the tower."

Kelvyn was about the shout, but he fell silent. After a few moments, his expression turned grim. "Well, what are you waiting for? Get there before him!"

"I can't! I don't know where in the universe this place even is!"

Ratchet looked at her. "I could navigate!"

"Oh, no, Ratchet. I don't want you to go through any more trouble."

"I insist, Skye! Don't you want an end to this? I do!" Ratchet looked down. "Besides, I'm involved in this now, I may as well help."

"Fine," Skye grumbled. "But I'm warning you that it's dangerous."

"Looks like you have a lackey lover on your trail, Skye! How cute and funny!" Kelvyn grinned.

Skye frowned. "Shut up or I'll send a missile to your door."

"Okay, okay. I'll leave you two lovebirds alone." And with that, he ended the transmission.

"What was that about?" Ratchet asked, tilting his head.

"I don't know, it seems the transmission is still working from this distance."

"Well, we better head off," Ratchet said, helping Skye up.

"I guess you're right," Skye said, wondering if he'd remembered the dialogue at all.


End file.
